Senegal — Study on the Needs of Missing Migrants and their Families (December 2022)

More than 2,100 migrants died in West Africa and on the region's overseas routes to Europe between 2014 and 2022, according to data from IOM's Missing Migrants Project (MMP). Moreover, the circumstances in which migrants disappear vary and it is sometimes difficult to establish the death with certainty. Indeed, it is also possible that the missing person is alive but does not have the possibility or the will to communicate with his family, because of detention or the fear of detention, for instance. 

Issues of the dignity of families and of the dead therefore accompany the issues of strengthening the legal protection systems and material assistance for families. In the spirit of respect for International Law and Human Rights on the rights to life, liberty and security of the person, this study focuses on assessing and evaluating the needs of missing migrants and their families in Senegal. 

The interviews of migrant families in this study were conducted in November 2022 among fifty-four families. The survey methodology consisted in the adoption of qualitative interviews based on semi-open questionnaires, which allowed the quantification of data a posteriori.